“Normal” is not a Target
We manage collections of cultural patrimony (art included) in deep, inefficient ruts left by the ox carts of previous generations. At that time, it made certain sense, but all things must occasionally evolve away from gills and grow feet. Failure to evolve in general (but especially now), when the industry bleeds out funds to pandemic recovery, will only further pump the brakes on returning to “normalcy”. “Now” is “normal”.
Leadership is REALLY Hard
Wage Transparency
In May of this year, New York City will join a small group of states including Colorado, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Washington requiring that all job listings post a salary range.
Amazeum 2: The Accountability
Web3-ing Your Stuff
Our databases that contain the vast troves of knowledge about the cultural heritage we steward analog the difference between web2 and web3. When we catalog an object and upload our knowledge of an object to a database, we mostly aggregate and copy information (literally, ad nauseum for me this week) that already exists about an object and store it with one, centralized company. Thus, that company gains a certain amount of power over our data based on its size.
Hope, Distributed (Part 3)
Surely, you have heard the recent story about the group of people who banded together to raise over $47,000,000 to bid on an original edition of the U.S. Constitution. Well, they nearly won it. Constitution DAO formed with a single goal: to crowdfund enough money to purchase the holy, historic document from auction at Sotheby’s. And while a literal “we the people” ironically lost out in a bidding war with a single billionaire – who at least will loan the document to a museum – the act demonstrates populist power ramifications that can extend to collections stewardship.